


Joining the team

by xsunny



Category: Captain America (Movies), G.I. Joe (Cartoon), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Happy Ending, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), References to Canonical Suicide Attempt, Suicide Attempt, Whump, brief mention of torture and drugging, hurt!zemo, prisoner!zemo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21579472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsunny/pseuds/xsunny
Summary: The Baroness and Dr. Bender break an unwilling Zemo out of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building.(aka an excuse to whump Zemo *and* pitch the idea that he and the Baroness would make a great and dangerous team together.)
Relationships: Zemo/Baroness, zemo & baroness
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Joining the team

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Darth_Cannizard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darth_Cannizard/gifts).



> If any of those subjects might trigger you, or make you feel uncomfortable, please don't read this story:  
> * Suicide attempt.  
> * Disregard for real life medical stuff.  
> * Disregard for MCU and G.I. Joe lore.  
> 

Sitting at the cot on his cell, Zemo wearily contemplated the routine his days consisted of, taking comfort on the small piece of metal he had been able to smuggle from the infirmary. It was not much, but it was a start. 

.:.

Colonel Helmut Zemo's days at the Join Counter Terrorist Centre consisted of staying locked inside a 3x3m cement cell with nothing more than his captor's boring propaganda books for company, and an hour long visit to a pit with a 10m high skylight to get a sorry excuse of sunlight, all intercalated with monitored visits to the washroom. 

From time to time, no warning given, he would be taken to the underground infirmary for what they called ‘routine check-ups to ensure his physical health', medical procedures administered by personnel instructed not to talk to him or explain what was being done. They were unnecessary and could only be described as borderline sadistic, both punishment and powerplay. Many times when he was brought there to be ‘treated' he couldn’t remember being taken back to the cell afterwards; some other times, he was just in too much pain to care where he was.

But there was more to the routine.

On special days such as this one, when the Higher Ups or some Avenger wanted to interrogate him or just plainly have a blast by mocking him on his perceived failure, he would be manhandled at gunpoint from his cell, blindfolded and handcuffed with his hands behind his back and ankle cuffs tight enough to hurt his shins. They acted like they needed to prevent some super human from escaping - laughable, in a way, but also painful. The cuffs being made of Vibranium were surely enough a slap on the face by some Avenger.

He would then be escorted through what he assumed were underground corridors and halls to one of those damned mobile aquarium cells the Winter Soldier once was secured to. If he was not fast enough walking in any part of the journey, which was almost always the case, he would be forcefully dragged, his worn-out shoes scrapping the unrelenting hard floor. In the few occasions he was too stunned from the effects of a visit to the infirmary to be cooperative enough, he would also be tasered for his lagging.

.:.

As Helmut Zemo sat at the aquarium-like cell completely secured to the uncomfortable chair, his thoughts wandered to how much he missed his glasses, which were one of the first things they had removed from him when he was taken into the Facility. He could have used them to attempt something, sure, but he also missed the comfort of reading with them - even the tedious books they gave him.

Not long after, the door to the larger room opened, and two well dressed people entered. None of the Avengers, surely not one of the usual Higher Ups, he noted. The heavy door closed with finality.

"Good evening, Colonel Zemo." The woman in black said with a hint of a known accent.

He answered in polite Sokovian, which made her flash a fake smile.

"I hope we are not disturbing your daily activities much."

"No, you are not, Mrs...?"

"Baroness, actually. Cisarovna. And this is my associate, Dr. Bender."

Zemo assented, curious now. The woman was clearly enough in charge, and he addressed her.

"How can I help you, Baroness Cisarovna?" He decided that since he was there, he could at least have some intellectual challenge for a change.

The Baroness cut straight to the point. "At this very moment, the air inside your holding cell is being refuelled with nitrogen."

Zemo instinctively looked at the air vents - he knew he was being baited, but some worry showed on his face, microexpressions only someone trained would perceive. From the way she looked at him, she was.

"Don't worry, your death won't be painful. As a matter of fact, it will feel almost like falling asleep." She was playing with him.

He started to feel lightheaded, but could not determine if it was real or being caused by his mind. He felt the air becoming colder and his breathing sped up. He tried to regain his hand, though.

"Who are you? Who sent you?" 

The Baroness was watching him like a hawk, absorbing each of his reactions. "Relax and take deep breaths, Colonel, it will be faster." 

He changed tactics. "You're doing me a favor, Baroness." He said looking her in the eyes. "And to some of my enemies, too, I can assure you." 

"Killing you is hardly a favor, Colonel." She said holding his gaze. "You'll have to endure our presence for some more minutes, though. Nitrogen asphyxiation is not as fast as strangling someone."

His heart rate was starting to spike- he surely preferred dying than continue living this way, but now that it was finally happening, he felt a strong wave of impotence overpower him. He had tried to end it all in his own terms before, but a shot to the head was nothing like suffocating for long minutes like a trussed up animal in this forsaken place. 

"I see you are finally contemplating what is happening. Good." The Baroness walked to the front of the table and leaned back on it.

There were so many things he wanted to ask the mysterious woman and his companion, but he was feeling confused, his mind not able to complete complex thoughts.

"How-..."

"Half the world has disappeared. Of course you wouldn't know, with this whole incommunicado environment," she gestured around her. "Infiltrate our people here was easier than planned. Now is only a matter of collecting what we need… oh, that means you."

"The Avengers..."

"They are half a world away. And they have more pressing matters to take care of, I must add."

He looked at her, his vision starting to swim. He had trouble keeping his head up. 

"You are Hydra," he rasped.

"No, no. We work with them from time to time, but we are from… another organization. We do share some goals, though. Have you heard of the Cobra Command?"

The name rang a distant bell, but he couldn't quite place it in his dazed state. 

"Our organization would benefit from knowledge and special expertise such as yours." 

"Such a shame I won't be alive to… to... " He started coughing, his lungs succumbing to the lack of oxygen in the air without knowing it, since for all that mattered, he was still inhaling and exhaling. 

"Oh, you misunderstood the whole thing. You won't be dead for long."

Everything was making less and less sense to Zemo. His head dropped for a few seconds before he could muster the energy to look back up at her. The whole room was spiralling.

"The only way to open your cell is with your vital signs stopping." 

"I… see." He let his head rest on the back of the chair, lest it fall again.

"Unfortunately, there is a catch." 

He just kept gazing at her, the other man forgotten.

"Entertain me." If he wasn't going to be killed, he wanted to know more.

"My friend here, Dr. Bender, he is keen on mind control 'procedures' - brainwashing, if I may. I believe you are familiar with what has been done to Bucky Barnes?"

The Baroness watched as the spark of understanding ignited an adrenaline fuelled reaction on Zemo. "No, no, no..." He started murmuring and fighting to break free from the bindings with all he had, his wrists and legs surely to sport some impressive bruises when this was over.

"Tsc, tsc, Colonel." the Baroness chided. "Nothing you can do will free you. And besides, we will make sure to keep some part of you after."

Zemo had one last card, though. With frantic movements of his right hand fingers he reached the small medical apparatus he had hidden inside the seam cuff of his threadbare shirt during his last visit to the infirmary. He was planning on using it to try and escape, but now he was running against time to escape the only way he could from being brainwashed by that Cobra Command organization.

He dreaded dropping the piece, as he was getting more uncoordinated by the second, but when he victoriously held the sharp edged metal on his fingers, he looked pointedly at the Baroness, whispering "Thank you, but no- goodbye" in Sokovian. 

He promptly started to cut open his own wrist, a messy affair when tied to that damned chair and with only a few centimeters to work with.

The Baroness didn't seem surprised or preoccupied by it. 

"You underestimate us, Colonel Zemo. Do you really think we would not predict something like this?" She circled to the far side of the table and opened the black bag brought by Bender resting there.

Zemo was too curious not to chance looking at what she was at, something to take his mind away from the pain of slitting his own wrist open with a piece of metal not sharp enough. He doubled his efforts when he saw the contents of the bag, the Baroness taking them off, one by one, and showing him in a mock imitation of a TV commercial before depositing them on the table. Among the assorted medical equipment, a handheld defibrillator, a sewing kit, gauze, tubing, syringes and vials and, to his dismay, what looked like blood bags. 

His frantic movement and thoughts were making him even more dazed, she couldn't mean to- no, it was not possible, they would have never passed security with all that, and... " The lack of oxygen and blood loss were rendering him weak and confused, his breathing coming in shallow gasps, his eyelids starting to drop on their own. 

The last thing he saw before closing his eyes and falling into darkness was her smirking face.

.:.

The moment Zemo's heart stopped, his bindings were released and the cell door opened. Thanks to the people they had infiltrated at the Centre, the blasting alarm died down a few seconds later, and the lights were restored. 

Dr. Bender carried Zemo's inert body to the table, opening his shirt and starting CPR while the Baroness prepared the defibrillator. They needed only one shock to bring his heartbeat back to normal, Zemo spluttering and trembling, but just not conscious yet.

"He is lighter than I thought," Bender commented conversationally while starting a blood transfusion.

"Don't think I didn't notice you are leaving the sewing to the lady present, Bender," she answered good naturedly while sewing the ragged cut on Zemo's wrist.

"It's only a few stitches, anyway. Easy-peasy." Bender said while rummaging through the contents available, finding and filling a syringe with clear liquid.

"Yeah, but he bled a lot," she said passing her eyes through the red path left from the chair on the cell up to the table. "We have to give it to him, he's very effective in achieving his goals, even under-provisioned." 

"Do you think he could possibly join us with no 'encouragement'? Not that I wouldn't enjoy breaking him." Dr. Bender was now checking for bubbles on the filled syringe.

"I don't know, but I guess I can try using other motivations before you do your work." 

Zemo chose the moment to start coming to, his shallow breathing fast and erratic.

"How much time until he remembers and tries to fight us?" Bender changed the subject and asked playfully, injecting the contents of the syringe on the transfusion line.

"Oh, he is smart enough to figure it out fast." The Baroness had finished stitching the gash and was now cleaning and bandaging it. 

Zemo opened his eyes, confusion written all over his face for some moments before he tried to focus on his surroundings. They watched him closely, and were expecting it when he started flailing around trying to fight them.

"Colonel, stop it. Let the sedative work." She said not unkindly.

"What- what did you… do..." He was fading fast, but still weakly fought the drug. Bender held his wrists at his sides, mindful of the injured one.

The Baroness came into his view and started running her hand through his hair, trying to calm him.

"Relax, let it work. You'll soon be out of here, with us," she whispered, noticing he was trying to focus on her.

She took pity on him, removing her glasses and gently putting them on a now semi-conscious Zemo, tenderness on the gesture.

As he was finally losing consciousness, once again the Baroness was the last thing he saw, and he noticed this time she was really smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> * The Baroness is a long time favorite, one of the few women available when we were kids and played after watching the TV cartoon. Wish we had more content with her. :)
> 
> *DC, please, jump on the bandwagon! (There's a *Zemo* to play with :evil grin:)


End file.
